johnjacob.bauer@gmail.com

I am not judging her, but I am judging her actions. This world needs truth, which can only be found By the sounds of it, she has fallen from grace and needs to come back God and get cleaned up. I would think she had faith and worked with God’s grace at one point, but somewhere along the line fell away. Just like the bible teaches, we can lose our salvation by turning our back to God.

http://www.catholic.com/library/Assurance_of_Salvation.asp
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2002/0203sbs.asp

And David, people will always attack by stating you are judging them when you point something out. But what some folks do not see is if we Christians let others do sinful things and never say anything, we are not doing our job. We can judge someones actions, but not themselves. This article might shed some light…
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2007/0702btb.asp

I bought that first Katy Hudson album and thought it showed great potential. I’ve been hoping for a follow up, but not this one. Like a ship, we all leave a wake behind us. Some people leave grace, peace and godly seeds in their wake. Others sow discontent and rebellion. I’m glad you brought up the subject of Katy (now) Perry’s music, and I especially like the focus you took to pray for her and realize that, except by the grace of God, there go we.

On the one hand, Katy is not a Christian (based on her fruits) and we should not expect her to behave as one. On the other hand, Christians do have a standard of behavior and should be expected to live it (with plenty of room for grace and growth). To be a Christian includes making judgments about what is or is not acceptable in our lives, in our homes, in our congregations and in our social and community settings. That’s the path you took when you mentioned protecting your daughters, and it also follows the instruction from Ephesians 5:11, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

Sometimes I think we try too hard to be everyone’s inoffensive friend. For example, should not wanting your children to grow up in a culture that openly approves of homosexuality be considered “prudish?” It can only be considered that if we are going to stop implying that there is a God. A God who has the right to define the standards we are to keep.

The natural reaction of someone whose behavior is called into question is to reply something along the lines of “You have no right to tell me how to live.” The less thoughtful reply is to start name calling, and two names that jump to the lips frequently are “prude” and “judgmental.” When something clearly is sin, it is not being judgmental to say so. God already has judged what constitutes sin, and we are to expose it. On the other hand, when someone talks about sin as though it’s OK or even good for us (I kissed a girl; I liked it…. It felt so wrong; it felt so right) they run up against Isaiah 5:20, “How horrible it will be for those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness into light and light into darkness, who turn what is bitter into something sweet and what is sweet into something bitter.”

Our culture is sliding into calling good evil and evil good. Katy Perry is an obvious example, and that’s what we should expect from the world. More alarming, it’s not uncommon to hear people who call themselves Christians use profane or vulgar language, to call godless movies and music “entertainment,” to sleep together before marriage, and to defend homosexuality. I’m only 47, but the changes I’ve seen in just my 20 years as a Christian are pretty dramatic. We seem almost afraid to reference the Bible as though it has the authority to say something about our lives and wise living.

When I hear Christians defend these positions, often their arguments go something like, “Well, we are not supposed to judge,” or, referring to profanity, “Everyone uses those words nowadays. I’m sure God has bigger things to worry about than that.” The first is a misunderstanding of Matthew 7:1-6 (the famous ‘judge not’ passage), and the second seems to result from making God our homeboy rather than our Holy Lord.

It’s important to remember the world killed Christ for his stand on the issues, and for His claim to have the authority to do so. His way is not the popular way. I like the expression that the Gospel is not the Good News until it is first the very, very bad news. When we talk about sin, it’s going to rub people the wrong way. But we still need to expose it. In exposing it, we fulfill Ephesians 5:11 and we will have spoken the Truth (in love, let’s hope). It will encourage some and offend others (and maybe, hopefully, give them something to think about later).

What I’ve found is that the Gospel is plenty offensive enough with me adding anything to it. I have to work hard to let people know that I truly care about them to help the message land in a way that will allow it to grow. This is a struggle for me, but it’s not for lack of love. I care deeply about people and want everyone to know and love God. I want all of us to get along and care for each other. I’m idealistic to a fault. The struggle for me is to get words out of my mouth to convey that love. You did two important things that are a model for me. One is to commit that you will pray for Katy Perry. The other is to recognize that it’s only by God’s grace that you aren’t singing lyrics that lead others to discontent and rebellion. With that exposed and reflective of your heart, I don’t think you need to be concerned about seeming prudish or judgmental. You are just the messenger of God’s judgment on the subject, and that’s going to offend a lot of people–and be life to others.